Fighter planes of WW2

German, Japanese, Italian

History, datas and pictures of German, Italian and Japanese fighter planes of WW2.

At the start of the air war was one-sided. The German fighter planes dominated the skys. There was no need for advanced technology, and the campaign thaught the Germans little. Yet later the scene was to change dramatically. By 1942 the Luftwaffe
hardly dared fly over Britain at all, and when the invasion forces were massing in 1944 the Luftwaffe could not even bring back pictures. By this time the Allies were conquering the Luftwaffe fighter planes over the heart of Germany, but the battle was being fought with new weapons.
In WW2 more aircraft of more types were built than at any other time in history. In Germany in the final months there were a few of the most experienced fighter pilots the world has ever seen, some of whom had flown more than a thousand combat missions with a few hundred shot-down Allied planes.
There were new jet fighters, but too late.

The Italian Air Force had begun WW2 with nearly 2,000 operational aircraft ready for combat and with almost the same number in reserve. But because of the poor industrial capacity, by September 1943 the Italian Air Force numbered only 1,200 aircraft of which about half were serviceable.

In the Pacific Japan's air force were extremely succesfull. But then, when Japanese fighter planes seemed all but invincible, America's enormous industrial might began to make itself felt. First came the Battle of Midway, in which Japan suffered its first major losses of warships, men and aircraft, and the veterans of Pearl Harbour disappeared from the scene. In this cruical phase of WW2 in Pacific, Japanese industry continued to turn out large quantities of aircraft. It was a tremendous effort, but to no avail. The Japanese fighter planes fought ferociously until the last day, but air activity became more a question of desperate defence.